Of course anti-semitism is racism. It's just that racism against Jews has acquired a term of its own, probably because discriminating them has been so prominent historically.

Where it gets tricky is when anti-Israel or anti-Zionist statements are equated with anti-semitism; of course some anti-Israel/anti-Zionist people are also anti-semitists/racists, but many of them aren't. But your case is pretty obviously racist because the target is Jews as a whole, not Israeli politics or anything.

so like, on a pitchfork scale of 0.0 to 10.0, where 10.0 is a lynching, and 0.0 is Martin Luther King Jr. enjoying a cup of coffee while making breakfast, in his pajamas, humming a soft song to himself, where would the MacBook Pro thing fall? where does this comment fall?

I think this thread, while started with the noblest of intentions, has been a failure. And the reason I believe it has failed is that we (as a society) are so resigned to simply declaring something racist or not, as if it's binary, instead of attempting to quantify exactly how racist something really is, using numerical scales.

Exactly, this thread isn't about being outraged at these things, it's about discussing them, and learning from them, and analyzing peoples motivations, gaining valuable insight into contemporary race relations, and proposing solutions for a more equitable society. Which is why it is essentially ineffectual, and why we should focus on merely assigning submitted material a score.

my gut is that he worded it very poorly, but in context he seemed to be saying "it is sad that the current state of affairs requires individuals to wear BLM t-shirts to remind us that they matter, because everybody of every race matters. don't let the media tell you that any one group doesn't matter".

I can see why it was interpreted the other way given the clumsy construction of the message but while intent often doesn't matter as much as message, I think Civ probably agreed with BLM at the core.

Yeah, even wth *tera's assurances upthread, I've never liked reading them. We have quite a few from when my son went on a chihuahua kick at age 5 though. I try to avoid dragging them out for our younger kid if I can help it.

"We're going to make our country safe again. We're going to rebuild our inner cities because our African-American communities are absolutely in the worst shape that they've ever been in before. Ever, ever, ever."

trying to read up on opinions on this only brings up the EEOC complaint and right-wing OUTRAGE in reaction. is the flag synonymous with tea partiers and their more recent incarnations? is it a confederate flag cipher?

Possible challop: I don't know how true this is but I have heard theories that the American Revolution was at least partially spurred on by the British making moves towards abolishing slavery, so I'm not sure if this flag originating in the American Revolution makes it not racist.

A friend from Puerto Rico weighs in (I edited out a name and switched her incorrect reference to Google Translate to Facebook Translate):

The term "negro", as ______ was using it, is a term of endearment in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. We use "mi negro", "mi negra", "negrito", etc. So maybe Facebook translate might "know" that it is not supposed to translate it as "black", and it is translating it as something like "my nigga"? In any event, Bad Facebook Translate! Bad Facebook Translate!

Richards describes the famous moment that the Rolling Stones first visited Chess: “We walked into Chess Studios and there’s this guy in black overalls painting the ceiling. And it’s Muddy Waters and he’s got whitewash streaming down his face and he’s on top of a ladder.